America

    A child was taken to the hospital after stumbling into a rhinoceros exhibit at a Florida zoo and coming into contact with one of the animals, officials said Tuesday. Brevard Zoo in Melbourne, Florida, said the child was taking part in a hands-on, educational experience with the zoo's southern white rhinos when he or she apparently fell between steel poles separating guests from the rhino yard. The zoo is about 50 miles southeast of Orlando. In a statement, the zoo said the snout of at least one of rhinoceroses made contact with the child. Spokesman Elliot Zirulnik told CBS affiliate WKMG-TV the snout is defined as the area below the animal's horn. The child was rescued and taken to the Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital in Orlando, WKMG reported. The child's conditi...

    In a New Year's Eve interview with Fox News, Donald Trump indicated that he is willing to talk to Democrats about ending the partial government shutdown that has stretched into its second week. I'm in Washington, I'm ready and willing and able, I'm in the White House and I'm ready to go, Trump said. They can come over right now, they could have come over at any time. I spent Christmas at the White House, I spent New Year's Eve now in the White House. I'm here. I'm ready to go. Trump also said that he expects talks with future House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will resume once the two Democrats return to Washington. Congress will resume on Thursday, Jan. 3 when new members are sworn into office. It's very important. A lot o...

    An eagle-eyed photographer in South Yorkshire ensured the news of Donald Trump’s secret visit to Iraq emerged sooner than the White House intended. Self-described “aviation nut” Alan Meloy was on his front doorstep taking pictures of aircraft over the Sheffield suburb of Chapeltown when he spotted something a bit different flying up above. He quickly photographed the unusual plane and immediately recognised it to be one of the two aircraft used as Air Force One, the name given to the plane which the US President uses. At this point Mr Trump’s Iraq visit was still top secret – he and First Lady Melania had left Washington DC without fanfare in the middle of the night. So when Mr Meloy posted the image on photo-sharing site Flickr to see if anyone else had spotted i...

    Donald Trump took wife Melania to Iraq to pay US troops a surprise visit this Christmas. The President and First Lady posed for selfies, shook hands with military personnel, and packed on the PDA for an awkward-looking kiss. But what did the kiss and their actions during the visit reveal about the couple? Melania appears to keep their torsos apart as they kiss, stretching her neck in to achieve face-closeness instead. Trump’s kissing style looks rather dominant, with a raised chin and fully pursed lips that touch his wife’s face on her upper cheekbone. This rather awkward style of cheek kiss with contrasting touch and little in the way of choreography would normally suggest a social or business greeting or farewell kiss between colleagues or friends, suggesting th...

    A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Stormy Daniels must pay President Trump more than $293,000 (£233k) in legal fees in her failed defamation lawsuit, a decision that the president’s team hailed as a total victory but that Daniels’s attorney vowed would never hold up on appeal. U.S. District Judge S. James Otero ruled that Daniels must pay Trump $293,052.33 in attorneys fees, costs and sanctions, a figure representing 75 percent of the amount Trump had been seeking. Daniels had claimed in the lawsuit that Trump defamed her when he suggested that she had lied about being threatened to keep quiet about their alleged past relationship. Otero dismissed the suit in October, ruling that Trump’s rhetorical hyperbole was political in nature and ordering Daniels, whose given ...

    President Trump suggested Saturday he was prepared to shut down the federal government next month if Congress fails to give him the money he wants to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. If I was ever going to do a shutdown over border security when you look at the caravan, when you look at the mess, when you look at the people coming in, the president said. ...This would be a very good time to do a shutdown. The president has asked lawmakers for $5 billion for new wall construction in fiscal 2019, but Democrats oppose the project and a bipartisan Senate compromise earlier this year included just $1.6 billion for it. During the 2016 campaign, Trump repeatedly promised voters that Mexico would pay for the roughly 2,000 mile barrier, which carries an estim...

    She bad-mouthed the defense secretary. She was the hatchet woman for John R. Bolton, the famously combative national security adviser, and drove out staff members from the National Security Council who were deemed insufficiently conservative or loyal. But in disparaging two members of Melania Trump’s staff who traveled with Mrs. Trump, the first lady, on her trip last month to Africa, Mira Ricardel, a deputy national security adviser, apparently went too far. In a White House where the drama has been constant, but almost always behind the scenes, an email to reporters on Tuesday from Stephanie Grisham, a spokeswoman for the first lady, was unusually direct: It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this Wh...

    Gun-carrying civilian groups and border vigilantes have heard a call to arms in President Trump’s warnings about threats to American security posed by caravans of Central American migrants moving through Mexico. They’re packing coolers and tents, oiling rifles and tuning up aerial drones, with plans to form caravans of their own and trail American troops to the border. We’ll observe and report, and offer aid in any way we can, said Shannon McGauley, a bail bondsman in the Dallas suburbs who is president of the Texas Minutemen. McGauley said he was preparing to head for the Rio Grande in coming days. We’ve proved ourselves before, and we’ll prove ourselves again, he said. McGauley and others have been roused by the president’s call to restore order and defend the c...

    Minutes after news broke of potential explosive devices being mailed to the homes of former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, along with CNN’s New York City studio, the dark corners of the conservative Internet were declaring it a plot to gin up empathy for Democrats. Cries that the bomb threats was merely a false flag operation were evident on Twitter and pro-Trump forums. Many of the personalities pushing the claim were fringe types. But not all of them. John Cardillo, a former NYPD officer and popular right-wing radio host, initially denounced political violence on both sides of the aisle, but quickly broadcast his skepticism that the threats were legit. Just too coincidental that two weeks before Election Day, as the blue wave has turned into a ripple, a...

    There are 10 American and European hostages among 700 taken by ISIS in Syria, according to Vladimir Putin. Putin, who made the claims in a televised interview, says the terrorist group has issued an ultimatum promising to execute 10 people every day. The Russian president, speaking in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, said ISIS has expanded its presence in areas controlled by US and allied forces. Putin said the hostages included several U.S. and European nationals but that no-one on the international stage was talking about the situation. Everyone is silent, some kind of silence as if nothing is happening, he said. They have issued ultimatums, specific demands and warned that if these ultimatums are not met they will execute 10 people every day. The day before ...